Council to Parliament: talk to the hand

The Council on Wednesday rejected demands from the European Parliament to abolish mobile phone roaming faster and equalize access to the Internet.

This was the latest blow for the so-called Connected Continent package, after the Latvian presidency failed to broker a deal at Tuesday negotiations between Parliament, Council and the European Commission.

This will disappoint Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip, who sounded like a dreamer Monday when he tweeted his hopes for a breakthrough on the telecoms talks.

“I don’t easily give up hope: it’s time to end #roaming for good, and soon. @EUCouncil and EP to deliver in #TSM negotiations tomorrow.”

His office declined to comment Wednesday.

“These new proposals from the Council were rejected by all of the political groups present. We need to see more ambition from ministers during next week’s Council meeting,” Jens Rohde, Danish Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe shadow rapporteur, said Tuesday night.

The stalemate over the Connected Continent package is also crushing hopes of an agreement before the rotating presidency shifts from Latvia to Luxembourg at the end of the month.

As the camps go back to the drawing board, it’s hard to see how a compromise will be reached.

The Council wants to delay the roaming ban to 2018, two years later than Parliament. That’s a nonstarter for a majority of members in Parliament, which also rejected Council’s watered-down rules for Internet access.

If neither side will budge, elements of the reforms will have to be withdrawn — a fate already suffered by most of the Connected Continent package.

This would have significant implications for the digital single market strategy, unveiled last month by the Commission.

“We are very worried about the outcome of the negotiations. If the phasing out of roaming charges is pushed back again and net neutrality is not sufficiently guaranteed it will be near to impossible to support the text. This would be a false start for the digital single market,” said Esther de Lange, Dutch MEP from theEuropean People’s Party.

Consumer groups blame member countries for protecting their own interests.

“The Council have been dragging their feet on roaming and net neutrality for far too long,” said Ursula Pachl, director general of BEUC, a consumer advocacy. “Member states must be more responsive to the calls for more ambition coming from all sides…The question is will they listen or will they water down the good work already done?”

Liberal members of Parliament believe the Luxembourg presidency may be more sympathetic towards their coalition.

“We can only hope the Luxembourg presidency will take these negotiations more seriously,” Fredrick Federley, a Swedish member of Parliament and ALDE, told POLITICO last week.